1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relates to mesoporous carbon including heteroatoms, a manufacturing method thereof, and a fuel cell using the mesoporous carbon, and more particularly, to mesoporous carbon having reduced sheet resistance due to the heteroatom, a manufacturing method thereof, and a fuel cell using the mesoporous carbon as a support for catalysts.
2. Description of the Related Art
A catalyst that is contained in electrodes of fuel cells to facilitate an electrochemical reaction plays an important role, and thus, the activity of the catalyst used in an electrode should be as high as possible. Since the activity of the catalyst increases as the reaction surface area of the catalyst increases, catalyst particles should be reduced in diameter to increase the reaction surface area and should be uniformly distributed in an electrode. Much research has been carried out relating to finding catalyst supports that provide a large surface area.
Meanwhile, in addition to a large surface area, which may be obtained through high porosity, a catalyst support for a fuel cell must have electrical conductivity to act as a path for the flow of electrons. A conventional example of such a support is an amorphous microporous carbon powder, such as activated carbon or carbon black and a regularly arranged carbon molecular sieve material (Korean Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 2001-0001127).
However, it is known that micropores of such an amorphous microporous carbon powder are poorly connected. Therefore, in a conventional direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), a supported catalyst that is prepared using an amorphous microporous carbon powder as a support exhibits much lower reactivity than metal particles themselves used as a catalyst.
However, when metal particles themselves are used as a catalyst, the amount of the catalyst required is greater, and thus, the manufacturing costs of a DMFC increase. Accordingly, the development of a supported catalyst that can improve catalyst activity is desirable.